Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Yet Another Reason I Love My Job - SOL

Like most teachers, I strive to build a strong, close-knit reading community with my students. I actually have two classes, a morning and afternoon language arts group. We have shared our reading lives from Day 1 of this school year. I know a great deal about my students as readers, they know a great deal about me as a reader, and they know a great deal about each other as readers.

So, I shouldn't be shocked by what I found on our KidBlog tonight, but I was incredibly happy. One of my students had shared a great app from our local metropolitan library with a small group of classmates today. They were fascinated by what she had to say. I'm guessing that because of their reactions, she decided to post the following for a bigger audience:

When reading posts like this, who wouldn't love their job?!!! How lucky I am to be part of this reading community! My students and their reading lives continue to amaze me every day.

(If you happen to live in the Columbus Metropolitan area, you should check out this app from our local library!!)

This is great! I'm in school to become a teacher and I know how important reading is for students. With technology evolving like it is, having free apps to encourage students to read is fantastic!! I can't wait for moments like this to happen to me :)

I think this is incredible. One of the biggest issues I have encountered as a special educator is getting kids to really love reading. They fight me and they hate it and I get it. They all struggle with reading and as humans we tend to dislike things that are difficult, so I understand their frustration. My goal for the remainder of the year is to increase not only their reading skills but also their enjoyment of reading. I have not used one up to this point but I am going to investigate using a kid blog of sorts. We have used iPads for various reading activities but I must admit I have not provided them with a great method or platform for sharing good finds. Maybe if I do this I will see more positive results because I want my students to be as excited as yours and I want them to share with each other more. If we could get all students as excited about reading and sharing with one another as yours is we could eliminate so many other complications that enter the school environment as a result of their frustrations with reading.

I think this is incredible. One of the biggest issues I have encountered as a special educator is getting kids to really love reading. They fight me and they hate it and I get it. They all struggle with reading and as humans we tend to dislike things that are difficult, so I understand their frustration. My goal for the remainder of the year is to increase not only their reading skills but also their enjoyment of reading. I have not used one up to this point but I am going to investigate using a kid blog of sorts. We have used iPads for various reading activities but I must admit I have not provided them with a great method or platform for sharing good finds. Maybe if I do this I will see more positive results because I want my students to be as excited as yours and I want them to share with each other more. If we could get all students as excited about reading and sharing with one another as yours is we could eliminate so many other complications that enter the school environment as a result of their frustrations with reading.